Research

My laboratory-based research programme explores a link between alternative pre-mRNA splicing (AS), a ubiquitous post-transcriptional gene regulatory mechanism, and prostate cancer (PCa) phenotypes.  During AS, coding (exons) and non-coding (introns) regions of a gene are shuffled to create protein isoforms with different functions.  AS is regulated by trans-acting RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), and tightly coupled to transcription. We are studying the link between dysregulation of transcriptional and intracellular signalling processes and AS, mediated by RBPs. 

Our translational research examines how blood-derived liquid biopsy molecular biomarkers can be used to improve treatment outcomes for PCa patients. With NHS colleagues, we are investigating minimally-invasive surgical alternatives to chemotherapy for metastatic testicular cancer to reduce the therapy burden and toxicity. In collaboration with the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, we are exploring how minimally-toxic chemo-preventative strategies may reduce PCa progression on active surveillance.

Other Activities

• 2019 to date- Member: National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Germ Cell Tumours Research Group
• 2019 to date- Member: NCRI Advanced Prostate Cancer Research Group
• 2019 to date- University College London Urology Clinical Academic Board

Major Funding

• 2021-2022 - Barts Charity Small Project Grant, Exploiting PTEN Loss in Hypoxic Tumour Cells (Principal Investigator) ~£48,000
• 2020-2021- CRUK Barts Centre Development Fund, Exploiting PTEN loss in Hypoxic Tumour Cells (Principal Investigator), £10,000
• 2018-2021- QMUL Life Sciences Initiative PhD Studentship, Understanding alternative splicing in human cancer by proteomics informed by transcriptomics (PIT) (Co-applicant with Professor Conrad Bessant), ~£80,000
• 2017-2021- The Urology Foundation/The John Black Charitable Foundation Project Grant, Androgen receptor splice variants in prostate cancer (Principal Investigator), £249,999

Recent Publications

Early outcomes of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy following completion of a structured training curriculum: a single surgeon cohort study Sehmbi AS, Sridhar AN, Sahadevan K et al. Journal of Clinical Urology (2021) 14(7) 246-254

Salvage Versus Primary Robot-assisted Radical Prostatectomy: A Propensity-matched Comparative Effectiveness Study from a High-volume Tertiary Centre Nathan A, Fricker M, De Groote R et al. European Urology Open Science (2021) 27(7) 43-52

Increased pathway complexity is a prognostic biomarker in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer De Laere B, Crippa A, Mortezavi A et al. Cancers (2021) 13(7)

The Identification of Plasma Exosomal miR-423-3p as a Potential Predictive Biomarker for Prostate Cancer Castration-Resistance Development by Plasma Exosomal miRNA Sequencing Guo T, Wang Y, Jia J et al. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (2021) 8(7)

A cohort study of 30 day mortality after NON-EMERGENCY surgery in a COVID-19 cold site Kasivisvanathan V, Lindsay J, Rakshani-Moghadam S et al. International Journal of Surgery (2020) 84(7) 57-65

Corrigendum to “A standard operating technique to facilitate early return of urinary continence after robotic prostatectomy outcomes of a consensus meeting of experts with experience of over 30,000 cases” [Eur Urol Suppl 2017;16;e2301–2] Sridhar AN, Sooriakumaran P, Rajan P et al. European Urology Open Science (2020) 22(7) 1-2

Peri-operative, functional and early oncologic outcomes of salvage robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy after high-intensity focused ultrasound partial ablation Thompson JE, Sridhar AN, Shaw G et al. BMC Urology (2020) 20(7)

Retzius sparing robotic assisted radical prostatectomy vs. conventional robotic assisted radical prostatectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis Phukan C, Mclean A, Nambiar A et al. World Journal of Urology (2020) 38(7) 1123-1134

Identification of altered biological processes in heterogeneous RNA-sequencing data by discretization of expression profiles Lauria A, Peirone S, Giudice MD et al. Nucleic Acids Research (2020) 48(7) 1730-1747

Reply by Authors Xu L, Mao X, Grey A et al. The Journal of urology (2020) 203(1) 81-82

Team

Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr John Foster

Biography

Key qualifications